The rejuvenated Jewish community of Uzhgorod, Ukraine, which was practically emptied of its Jews by Nazi forces in 1944, is marking the 65th anniversary of that terrible spring with a grand opening of a facility dedicated to providing ritual circumcisions for any Jewish male that wants one.
Ukraine Jewish Community Opening Bris Center
The rejuvenated Jewish community of Uzhgorod, Ukraine, which was practically emptied of its Jews by Nazi forces in 1944, is marking the 65th anniversary of that terrible spring with a grand opening of a facility dedicated to providing ritual circumcisions for any Jewish male that wants one.
According to locals, the new fourth floor of the city’s Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center, which also includes an event hall and new classrooms, is a fitting tribute to the community that was almost destroyed and today breathes anew with Jewish life.
“We are using it already,” said Meir Simcha Brenner, a 37-year-old resident of Uzhgorod.
The centerpiece of the project, which was made possible by a donation from the Rohr Family Foundation, is its clinic, which has hosted three circumcisions since construction was finished just before Passover. In the next two weeks, a ritual circumciser from the Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization is expected to perform several more.
Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Taichman, the city’s chief rabbi, pointed out that in the past few years, 50 ritual circumcisions have taken place in Uzhgorod. Most were performed on infants, but older boys and young men are increasingly choosing to undergo the procedure, which was denied them by Soviet authorities after World War II. The oldest person to have a circumcision in Uzhgorod in recent memory was 72 years old.
The facility’s dedication on June 1, two days before the 65th anniversary of the last Nazi train departing Uzhgorod for Auschwitz, will coincide with ceremonies commemorating the Holocaust. A large crowd of locals and foreign visitors, including Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, is expected for the events.
For his part, Taichman said the Chabad House’s expansion is not only a response to what happened more than six decades ago; it’s proof of the community’s resolve against modern-day anti-Semitism and violence. In 2007, he noted, an arsonist destroyed much of the center. Surveying the damage days after that incident, the rabbi had pledged to rebuild.
From Someone Who Has Been There
Yaashsere Koi’ach! Kol Hakovod. Hatslocho Rabbo. Sheyailchu Maichayil El Choyil!
Stan Liberman
That is so nice! When I got my bris in Kiev, I was 14, it was on a dining room table in one of the apartments near a local shul by a Chabad mohel, and it was “hush-hush”, because G-d forbid the authorities might find out. This is so nice to see the folks being able to do it in a nice environment. This is wonderful.